Romance of the Pink Panther

Production history

Sidney Poitier had originally been attached to direct. The first draft of the Sellers-Moloney screenplay was submitted in December 1979; however, the project stalled until Sellers wife Lynne Frederick came aboard as executive producer, and Clive Donner signed to direct in April 1980. Sellers and Moloney began work on a rewrite at that time which was completed just days before Sellers sudden death of heart failure in July 1980. Donners wife, costume designer Jocelyn Rickards, was preparing designs for the film, as was veteran series production designer Peter Mullins for the anticipated shoot at Studio de Boulogne in Paris. Pamela Stephenson would have joined Sellers, Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, Graham Stark, Andre Maranne, and longtime Sellers friend Max Geldray on the film.

After Sellers death, the studio attempted to keep the project alive by discussing replacing Sellers with Dudley Moore as Clouseau. Moore, who had been Blake Edwards choice to play a new character in the series to replace Clouseau, ultimately decided to pass on the part. The studio approached Edwards to come aboard to direct the Sellers-Moloney script. Edwards rejected the idea of using Sellers script and instead stuck to replacing Clouseau rather than Sellers. The result was 1982s transitional film Trail of the Pink Panther, utilizing Sellers outtakes from 1976s The Pink Panther Strikes Again and 1983s failed relaunch, Curse of the Pink Panther, with Ted Wass as incompetent New York police detective Sergeant Clifton Sleigh.

In the 2004 biopic "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," the unproduced film "Romance of the Pink Panther" is mentioned. However, the biopic inaccurately portrays Blake Edwards as being involved in the project and depicts Peter Sellers as disinterested in reprising his iconic role, which does not align with known historical details of the project.

The two drafts

Two drafts were written: one was finished in December 1979, and the other one was finished in July 1980, eight days before Sellers death. Both drafts have the same basic storyline but are very different, most notably in their endings.

The plot of the film involved Clouseau falling in love with a daring cat burglar called "The Frog" (to be played by Pamela Stephenson), because of the scattered natures and locations of her crimes. The name was a pun on a British slur for the French. Clouseau would have pronounced the name like the 1960s dance "the froog," with detective and thief smitten with each another in spite of themselves.

The first draft saw Clouseau promoted to police commissioner at the conclusion and reinstating Dreyfus as Chief Inspector. In the revised draft, however, Clouseau retires from the force, marries Pamela Stephensons character...and joins her in a life of crime (similar to the fate given to Clouseau at the end of 1983s Curse of the Pink Panther).

Planned cast